Nobody wants to live the dongle life. Nobody, ever. So please stop removing useful ports on your devices. Here at AppleBlend, we've voiced complaints about your never-ending march to purge ports from your devices. You removed the headphone jack from the iPhone and really slimmed down the port selection on the MacBook. You nailed the coffin shut when you reduced your most powerful (portable) computing machine to just two or four USB-C ports, and the MacBook? Just one. All that removing ports has done has created frustration for the users, and it ends up costing more money, adding expense to an already expensive device. So seriously Apple: stop it.

Think about it. What has removing ports accomplished? It ends up costing more for the consumer. Dongles suck. It's annoying. Oh, and dongles also suck. Did I already mention that? Removing ports is another one of Tim Cook's delusions of "innovation". Sure, it sounds nice to say that you're slimming down your devices, making them sleeker. But the practicality of removing every possible useful port is about zero. Or negative one.

There's really not much to say about this. Removing ports quite clearly is a bad move. But Apple continues the march, and there's no sign that they're going to stop. No, it's not innovative or trend-setting. What do you think? We'd love to hear some input, so put your thoughts in the comment sections below.

4 Comments

Harvey Lubin
~ Jan.
24,
2017 @
9:37am

I agree 100%.
I'm still P.O.'d that Apple got rid of floppy disks and CD-ROM drives...
Sure, they were glacially slow, and cumbersome, and could not hold much data at all, but those defective or dead floppy disks and CDs made EXCELLENT coasters for coffee mugs.
????
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KiraK
~ Jan.
24,
2017 @
10:29am

Perhaps the most serious weakness with Apple today is its fanatical obsession with thinness. Apple has jumped the shark on that issue, making its products less powerful, less flexible, and less upgradable. And its mobile products experience less potential runtime before recharging. This might not be an issue but that its devices have been thin enough for quite some time. Any way you cut it, Apple's obsession for thinness has resulted in a number of undesirable side effects which are precipitously eroding the goodwill for many of its customers, particularly a large swath of long time, loyal customers who demand excellence from a once proud company that built the very best personal computing experience possible. Apple has been seduced by the large consumer space, providing that market with shiny bells and whistles at premium prices. Unfortunately, the consumer space is fickle and this will hurl Apple down BlackBerry path if it continues its transmogrification into the new Sony without addressing the wants and needs of its most influential customers — professionals, power users, and prosumers.
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Paul Sagan
~ Jan.
24,
2017 @
11:56am

Dongles aren't so bad!
One big error in the column:
"You nailed the coffin shut when you reduced your most powerful (portable) computing machine to just two USB-C ports."
No, sorry, but the most powerful laptops have *four* (count ' em!) USB-C ports, not two!
You could have strengthened your case by mocking Apple for putting out its MacBOOK with only *one* USB-C port -- and that to handle both power and USB connections!
Now, that's ridiculous!
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BAP
~ Jan.
24,
2017 @
1:19pm

Just came back from rounding at hospital
I bogarted a keyboard and mouse from one computer, used a USB stick, a portable DVD and a printer. I sometimes use headphones
no USB-C for me it will be 10 years for availability at work
at home a docking station is fine, like the old PB duo 0 had 2
this is back to ADB days when you had a nice bus, but no peripherals
not all the dongles work, especially when doing long operations like twinning drives
Apple is the new plug and pray
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